This blog is intended to provide a venue for the free discussion and discourse concerning strange and weird phenomena in Georgia.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Family Leaves Without A Trace in Stockbridge

Because there are a lot of crazies out there, I will not devulge the names of the people who live in this house today, nor the address. However, I can tell you that the location is in Henry County, Georgia near the town of Stockbridge, which is a city of decent size about twenty minutes south of downtown Atlanta. A good friend of mine and her family live in the house, which is said to also be haunted, and is perhaps the location of a few Bigfoot visits. More about that in a future post. What I am about to tell you is even more mysterious than Sasquatch and the walking dead.

Apparently, prior to my friend purchasing the home, it sat vacant for five years. Before that, a family lived there and made attempts to purchase the home. They were so excited about buying it that they volunteered to make improvements in the home, including closing in the carport. The owner of the home was attempting to sell the house to the family. The owner's mother had lived there prior to that and when she fell ill and was sent to hospice and died, this family moved in. The time all this happened was around 1986-87. According to the owner, this family seemed quite eager, even making arrangements to secure a home loan. The house was perfect for them, and they wanted it very much. As time went on for about a year, the owner of the home would check in periodically with the family. Upon not hearing from them for a while, he decided to drive over to the house and speak with the family and check on them. What he found when he arrived is more than mysterious. It appears that the family disappeared in the night. They were gone, and it appeared that they left in a hurry, for many of their belongings were still in the house untouched as if they had fled. The neighbors even mentioned that the family was there one day and gone the next. Noone remembers having seen the family move out in the traditional way that a family would, i.e moving vans, boxes, and a lot of commotion. The neighbors felt that this was certainly strange. They made no attempts to contact the owner of the home. As a matter of fact, when my friend and her family purchased the home in the early 1990s, that same owner remained quite baffled about what happened. He had never heard from them for over five years while the house sat vacant. He had no forwarding address and nothing was left behind in the house like a note or letter explaining the reasons the family vacated in a hurry.

At the time that all this happened, the home sat in a very underdeveloped part of Henry County, which today is a thriving and booming part of the south metropolitan area of Atlanta. The home still sits in one of the quieter areas of Stockbridge, but it is by no means isolated or off the beaten path. My friend and her family have lived there for almost 17 years and seem quite happy. Upon visiting her recently and eating some really great chili, she and her family told me about a mysterious safe that was left behind by the family as they fled. The safe is locked and the combination long forgotten. My friend has made no serious attempts to open the safe, more out of fear of damaging it and losing what is a really nice antique. I can attest to this because I saw it in the basement when I visited. She does, however, often ponder what is inside the safe. Another friend has offered to bring a a stethascope to the home and listen to the tumblers in an attempt to get the combination and open it. He has also offered to use a blow torch. Needless to say, the blow torch idea was quickly shot down. It is a large stand alone safe. Picture in your mind, if you will, the safes that Boss Hogg had in his offices on the Dukes of Hazzard. It even sits up on wheels the same way that Boss Hogg's did. It is a very cool looking safe, and I can understand why my friend does not want it damaged.

But what is in the safe, and why was it left there? For that matter, why was anything left in that house by this mysterious family? Even more curious is why they left in such a hurry? Does the safe contain clues as to the whereabouts of this family and why they had to leave in a flash? Were they being pursued by someone who intended to do them harm? Or were they scared off by something in the home? Were they the recipients of the ire of the ghost of the owner's dearly departed mother? She may have loved the home so much so that she did not want it sold outside of her family. Or was she furious when the family altered the home by closing in the carport? Or is this simply a case of a family whose father or mother got in to trouble in their past and it finally caught up with them?

Some visitors to the home have commented that the home is built on what they think might be a Native American sacred site. My friend and her family have experienced some very strange things while living there these past 17 years. For example, people have pulled in the driveway and seen what appears to be my friend standing at the window of her room or office area, but as it turns out, my friend is not there at all. A black dog has been seen in the house by the family as well, when no dog is present inside the home at the time. It also appears that there is a womanly figure in the house with long blonde hair, but with the face of an owl. My friend has also overheard voices in the house that appeared that someone was having a conversation in the house. However, noone was in the home besides her. She has also heard the deep laughter of a man inside the home when the only male there was her husband, who was visibly asleep in the bedroom and had to be awakened to investigate the laughter. Are these the manifestations of something sinister? If so, did these activities occur when the family who left in the night was living there? Perhaps this had something to do with their strange flight and disappearance. Who knows? I am afraid my friend may be living on the site of what is one of the strangest events in the area.

32 comments:

Hi Prof!Wow! What a strange story!I CANNOT BELIEVE your friend has not opened that safe! If it were me, I would have opened it first thing!That sounds like a very haunted house. My sister lived in a very haunted house and they had to escape the house periodically. They finally deserted the house, but they owned it, so they had to deal with it to sell it. For the house in your blog, the family did not own it, so they were free to just walk away. Some believe that if there is a ghost/spirit/entity in a place and is fed (fed by emotions - giving it attention-talking to it, being afraid of it) that the entity will grow strong and can cause a lot of problems. Maybe when it sat vacant for five years, the entity declined in strength or even went away. ... or maybe the family ran away from something or someone else.

That is very interesting about giving the entity attention. I had never really heard that before, but I can see what you mean.

The family leaving like that really is strange. Even though this happened in the late 1980s, people still were required to notify property owners if they were vacating like that. This guy heard nothing from them, and never has. I would love to find out the name of this family and see if we could track them down. But then again, that might be dangerous if they do not want to be found.

Perhaps it would be, but it would be so interesting to find them and ask them why they left in such a hurry. I would not really do this, but if they ever turned up I would wonder what their answer would be.

Something bad might have happened to them. There was a family who disappeared at another home in Stockbridge. The interesting thing here is that they even left their cars. The home fell into disrepair and was torn down. It was about the same time period. Local talk says that maybe they were forced to leave. But no one really knows. But an interesting side note to this is that the man never returned to his job either.

Wow! Another family disappearing?!I wonder how common that actually is?I personally had not heard of it before. Are you positive they tore the house down? Maybe you and the Professor are talking about the same family?

I am positive it was torn down because I watched. The disappearances of people in Henry County has been common over the years and many times has been linked to the drug trade here. It is an ugly thing.

Oh...Wow, that is pretty disturbing.I had no idea that whole families frequently disappear.How is it you watched the house being torn down? Do you know the family that disappeared? Is that too personal? I won't be offended if you don't want to answer that one.

I knew the family and the house could be seen from mine. And don't be fooled about whole families disappearing when it comes to the drug trade. Look back in some of the old newspapers and you might be surprised. Evil wears many faces.

Ugh!I guess I AM fooled when it comes to the drug trade.I consider that something that one watches on TV, not out your window to your neighbor's house!... and to tell the truth, I like it that way.How many families would you guess (assuming you do not know exactly) have gone missing in Henry County?

I don't know exactly but I do know there have been many here who have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn't make it home.You have to remember this is Henry County where mysteries abound. Take for example the couple found in 1953 at the old Hudson Bridge site above the Little Cotton Indian Creek below Stockbridge. The young lady would meet her boyfriend at the bridge. She lived in a two story home that was torn down for a car wash not long ago. She and her boyfriend were beaten to death with a tire tool. No one was ever brought to trial for their murder. Then there was the case of the Jonesboro Coach and cheerleader who were found murdered in 1974 where the Henry Medical Center now sits. Someone was arrested and later found to be innocent. That crime has gone unsolved. The 1974 murder was likely linked to several murders that would occur in the Henry an Clayton County area that week. All had to do with the drug trade.The problem is those who carried out these crimes are still amongst us unless they have met their end.Henry County has it's ugly past. One day I will tell of the old haunted house where witchcraft was the rule of the day for a long time.

There once was a house on Hwy 155 at Knight Rd. that was the Dailey-Selfridge home built well before the Civil War. At that time a young girl had died in the home and she was there as a corpse when the Yankee soldiers came but would not enter the home in fear of what the child had died from. The home came into ruin and it was used by those to create witchcraft and such. I remember entering the home over twenty years ago doing a survey and found a pentagram, candles, and lots of chicken blood and parts in the parlor room of the house. This activity began in the late 1960's and many of the prominent people of our county today participated in the craft of that house. The home was torn down in the early 1990's after police searched for something around the house. The cemetery for the family is just behind where the house set. Many people would go there for Halloween just as they did to Butlers Bridge over on the South River below the Peachstone Shoals. Many black people had been hung off the bridge in the past by some very bad people. Again some of our prominent families of the past. Even the house that was torn down in Stockbridge at the bridge had a past with it. The old home on East Atlanta Rd. just past the new city hall that has the large columns in front was once a funeral home. There are many sites and sounds of Henry County that people know about but don't want to discuss because it brings back bad memories. And with all the new construction much of it has been taken away. Just like your store just in front of it a man was killed by a wagon years ago as he crossed the road. The wheels crushed his head. The man who ran over him was drunk at the time and later became a well known gentleman in the community. Life changes each day and it can be for the worse or the better.

The old house on Hwy 155 was known as the booger house to many. And if you look through the woods across the road you will find another cemetery. It is on County property today. If you all decide to go to that site be careful there is an old well there. On Lawrenceville Street there used to be a large octagon shaped home that was said to be spirited. Now there is a subdivision. But across the the road behind the old houses is where the site of one of the first cemeteries was for McDonough. Then there was one where the First State Bank sits on John Frank Ward Blvd. Then all was moved to the new Cemetery on the southside of town except for a few graves they left. The bad thing about it is they could have been moved with the rest.

Hey Scooter!!Haven't heard from you in a while. Welcome back!Hmmm, those are interesting questions, however, the family was trying to purchase the home which suggests getting a mortgage. Can illegal immigrants secure a loan? It was hard for me with my first house and I was born here and had EXCELLENT credit! Maybe that's why they were having problems getting the loan? But why would they make all those improvements and just leave without contacting anyone? AND WHAT'S IN THE SAFE?Prof, why doesn't your friend get that safe open?!I think you should get your stethoscope that you keep lying about and go trip those tumblers!

Rebscarlett: the place I spoke of in my piece was about 700 feet from Berry Hill Airport. And yes there was a lot of corruption in the police department for several years dealing with drug activity in the area. My mother n law told me today that there is a story about a house that used to be on Panola Road in the Fairview area that has a history. The story goes that a family up and left everything in the house including the meal they were eating on the table. This happened 45 years ago at the old Scarborough Crossroads. This type of activity has been happening in the area for many years. Something to think about here is who is next.

Rebscarlett, the case is the Jerry Banks case and I know a little about King and Hartsfield but I know someone who knows more because she went to Jonesboro High School. The interesting thing about the case is that Jerry Banks was presumed guilty without any recourse. He sat on death row for some time and when it was discovered he didn't do the killings then he was released. His mind was gone and his wife had settled with another man so he shot her and himself. His mother sued Henry County and Sheriff Glass and won the case for the children. It was really a sad event for everyone because the murders are still unsolved. It was reported that a man got into a van on Rock Quarry Road at the time the killings were supposed to have occurred and nothing was ever done to check into it. Rumor has it that it was a policeman but that is still rumor. I do know that within a two week period of that time four people were found in the Flint River with concrete blocks around them, a man was shot in the head and rolled into a train at Ellenwood, two women were burned to death by arson at the KOA campground that used to be on Jodeco Rd., a McDonough man was murdered and left in his car on a side street in Atlanta, and another body was found on Tunis Rd. They all knew one another. Ugly things have happened here in the past and they still happen.

Hi Doctor,You are just a font of knowledge about happenings in the area. You mentioned a body found on Tunis Road. In the McDonough Memorial Cemetery, there are two graves near the wall. It has been said that the graves near the wall are all African American graves. I assume these two are as well. But the bodies were found in the 1970s and 1980s, have been unidentified since then, and were not buried in the cemetery until the late 1990s. One marker says the person in the grave is unidentified and was found on Tunis Road. The other says the body is unidentified and was found on Hudson Bridge Road. Are these the two you reference in your comments?

Hello my friend, yes those graves at the McDonough Cemetery are from Tunis and Hudson Bridge Roads. They were both shot according to accounts. Mayor Craig had them buried in the cemetery and they were African American. Another interesting story is the old Sharon Church Cemetery on Turner Church Road. The white section is well kept and a rock wall separates the slave section from the others. Back during the Civil War a group of Union soldiers camped right across the road during the March to the Sea in November 1864 and one of the soldiers passed away from being sick possibly from pneumonia. The body was buried in the slave section of the cemetery near the wall. It is unmarked today. It is amazing how so many over the years have been buried in places where they probably would not have ended up if all were well in their environments.

Here is another tidbit of information that might be of interest to you. Back in 1974 there was some things buried in the McDonough Cemetery in hopes that it would raise the dead. These folks who tried this were not successful and were ran out by the police. But the problem being is that they supposedly cursed the cemetery because they didn't get what they wanted. These practioners were of a cult that used to live in the area. They are no longer with us. Another cult very similar to these folks tried the same thing in the town cemetery in Social Circle, GA back in 2003. They were also escorted away by the police. I am not sure if they are practicing some type wo witchery or voodoo but the point is that there are people out there trying to raise the dead. I even found something strange in the cemetery where my parents are buried in Conyers. A grave close to theirs about a year ago had candles, and a pentagram burned on the headstone and there were some chicken feet there too. Something was being tried at that grave also.

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Hello bloggers! Welcome to my Georgia Mysteries Blog. I hope you enjoy my postings. I have opened this blog for discussion of mysteries in Georgia. I specialize in not only Georgia history, but the history and study of legend and folklore and how our history has influenced them and is thus influenced by them. That could include hauntings, cryptos, disappearances, UFOs, strange objects and phenomena, and other items of interest. If you hear of anything you would like me to investigate and post, please email me.

About Me

I am a college history professor who has a love of history, Georgia, and anything that involves a combination of the two. I especially love strange and weird phenomenon. I am a big fan of Titanic history and unsolved mysteries. I would love to one day have enough money to just travel all over the world to historic places. I realize that is a big dream, but we all need them.